Vulnerability: Agricultural Workers and Climate Change

Since the broad discovery of climate change in the 1970s, researchers and scientists have attempted to understand its wide-ranging effects. Previous studies have extensively examined the relationship of climate to water access, human health, economic development, and global food supply. But as researchers tend to focus on the larger-scale threats created by climate change, other important areas of inquiry are often neglected. One such example is the socioeconomic impact of climate change on labor. For policymakers, this area is critical to developing adaptation plans and maintaining economic and social stability in the face of a changing climate.

A recent study by Christina Greene of the University of Arizona helps to fill this literature gap by focusing on the ongoing drought in California and its impact on the socioeconomic well-being of farmworkers. The study centers around the San Joaquin Valley (SJV), a prolific agricultural region in California that has been hit especially hard throughout the historic drought. Through interviews the impacted farmworkers, household surveys of the agricultural communities, and analysis of crop data, Greene provides a comprehensive overview of the unique vulnerability of farmworkers to extreme weather in this region, as well as its related effects on quality-of-life indicators such as employment, food and water security, and health.

While Greene begins by highlighting the dearth of existing literature on this topic, the results of her study highlight the need for more research. Her research concludes that droughts similar to the one in California have had a significant negative impact on agricultural labor. In particular, the study found that agricultural workers reported fewer available work opportunities, shorter harvest seasons, increasing commute distances just to find work, and depressed wages during the drought. The effect was observed in both counties she examined (Tulare and Fresno), but with important distributional differences. While both counties are characterized by large harvested areas of field crops, fruits, and nuts, Fresno County has a larger harvested area of labor-intensive row crops such as vegetables. In the study, Fresno County respondents were more likely (85 percent of respondents) to report a negative impact on employment than Tulare County (65 percent of respondents). The author suggests that the difference in the proportion of labor-intensive crops grown in the two counties could be a possible explanation for this outcome.

In addition, the study examined the impact of the drought on various measures of well-being among agricultural workers. Many respondents experienced water insecurity during the drought, which is defined as decreased availability, increased cost, or lower quality of available water. The impact was more pronounced in Tulare County with 2,261 groundwater well failures, compared to Fresno County with 230 groundwater well failures. Similarly, the study found that respondents also experienced food insecurity, defined by decreased affordability, availability and nutrition. Here, 65 percent of Fresno County respondents experienced food insecurity while 30 percent of Tulare County respondents indicated the same. Finally, while health concerns were not widely reported, existing health concerns were exacerbated by the drought.

While this study focused on a relatively small region at a particular period of time, the results indicate the complex ways in which events such as drought, compounded by other effects from climate change, threaten the well-being of agricultural workers. The different distributional risks faced by two similar counties also highlight the need for a more nuanced approach to such studies. Ascribing unemployment and water insecurity to drought and climate alone masks the inequities that make workers especially vulnerable to change. Most importantly, the research emphasizes the need to incorporate the voices of farmworkers through qualitative means when analyzing how climate events interact with existing structural inequities. A sustainable adaptation plan is contingent on a rigorous assessment of the impact of climate change on different stakeholders. As the incidences of extreme localized climate events increase due to broader changes in the climate, researchers and policymakers will need to take a more holistic view of its impact, paying particular attention to historically neglected groups who may be especially vulnerable.

Article source: Christina Greene, “Broadening Understandings of Drought – The Climate Vulnerability of Farmworkers and Rural Communities in California (USA),” Environmental Science & Policy 89 (2018): 283-291.

Featured photo: cc/(belfasteileen, photo ID: 536685371, from iStock by Getty Images)